Clothes dryer electricity cost
The dryer is the laundry room's real energy user: several thousand watts of heat and tumbling for every load, where the washer next to it sips.
Short answer at the example rate of $0.17/kWh: a typical 3,000 W clothes dryer running 1 hours a day, 12 days a month uses about 36.0 kWh and costs $6.12 a month. Put in your own wattage, schedule and rate below — a compact or ventless dryer may draw around 1,800 W, a standard electric dryer about 3,000 W while the element runs, and a large high-heat model up to 5,000 W.
The $0.17/kWh default is a rough example rate — about the US residential average on EIA figures, and it moves over time. Type in the rate from your own electricity bill for numbers that mean anything for your home.
Clothes dryer cost calculator
Low, typical and high — side by side
The default schedule is one hour-long load, 12 days a month — about three loads a week. Read 'per day' in the results as 'per load'. All three rows use that same schedule and the $0.17/kWh example rate; only the wattage changes.
| Model size | Watts | kWh / month | Cost / month | Cost / year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low end | 1,800 | 21.6 | $3.67 | $44.06 |
| Typical | 3,000 | 36.0 | $6.12 | $73.44 |
| High end | 5,000 | 60.0 | $10.20 | $122.40 |
Heat is the bill
Nearly all of a dryer's energy becomes heat to evaporate water — roughly 0.7 kWh for every litre, before losses. That physics sets a floor under the cost per load that no brand escapes; models differ in how much extra they waste around the edges. It also explains the two honest levers: start with less water (a faster spin) and finish with less time (a moisture sensor rather than a fixed timer, which regularly over-dries by 10–15 minutes a load).
Paired with the washer — typically $0.09 of motor electricity per load — laundry's energy story is really a dryer story with a heating-water subplot. If the pair shows up high on your whole-home list, the dryer row is where to look first.
Questions
- How much does one dryer load cost?
- At 3,000 W for an hour, 3 kWh — about $0.51 at $0.17/kWh. In practice the element cycles, so a load often lands between $0.35 and $0.55; a high-spin washer cycle first pulls more water out mechanically, which is cheaper than evaporating it.
- Is a gas dryer cheaper to run?
- In most US regions, yes per load — gas energy usually costs less per unit of heat. The gap depends on your local gas and electricity rates; the purchase price and venting requirements differ too, so it is a replacement-time decision, not a switch you flip.
- What does line drying actually save?
- Every load not dried is roughly $0.50 not spent: at three loads a week, air drying half of them saves around $40 a year and is kinder to clothes. Heat-pump dryers sit between the two, using roughly half the electricity of a conventional electric dryer per load.
- Why does my dryer take two cycles — is it costing double?
- Yes, close to it: a load that needs a second run uses close to twice the energy. The usual causes are an overloaded drum, a clogged lint filter or vent, or clothes going in too wet. The vent is the one to check first — it is also a fire-safety item.
More appliances: the main calculator and whole-home list · every preset on one chart · how the formula works